05/23/2008

News / EL DORADO HILLS MAN SENTENCED FOR SELLING STOLEN TRADE SECRETS TO FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—United States Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced today that ALLEN W. COTTEN, 53, of El Dorado Hills, Calif., was sentenced today by United States District Judge Edward J. Garcia to 24 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release. The defendant pleaded guilty to theft of trade secrets before the Honorable Edward J. Garcia on February 29, 2008.
This case is the product of an extensive joint investigation by the FBI and the Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security.
According to Assistant United States Attorney Anne Pings, who prosecuted the case, at the time the defendant entered his guilty plea, he admitted in court that beginning in February 2004, while employed at Genesis Microwave Incorporated in El Dorado Hills, he stole items including plans, designs, specifications and mechanical parts and hardware for the manufacture and testing of detector logarithmic video amplifiers (DLVAs) and successive detection logarithmic video amplifiers (SDLVAs), which are components used in microwave technologies. The military applications of these technologies include enhancing navigation and guidance capabilities, radar jamming, electronic countermeasures, and the ability to locate and pinpoint enemy signals during warfare. The designs that the defendant downloaded from Genesis computers were the property of the Genesis company and had been developed by Genesis
engineers to include a design that was secret. Continuing until February 2006, COTTEN sold and/or offered for sale, DLVAs and SDLVAs that were made using the secret Genesis plans to foreign governments and foreign military contractors. According to COTTEN’s own admissions, as corroborated by evidence seized by the FBI, the total amount of actual or intended sales to these companies was approximately $250,000.
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